Alvin Youngblood Hart

Biography

2 March 1963, Oakland, California, USA. Although raised in Oakland, modern-day country bluesman Hart draws inspiration from his ancestral home in Carrollton, Mississippi (the run-down shacks pictured on Big Mamas Door are actually the homes of his grandmother and great-grandfather). He briefly played in high school rock bands, but was naturally drawn to the blues and tried to break into the local scene in Los Angeles. Dismayed with the commercialization of the blues, he decided to become a solely acoustic player in the mid-80s. Although he gave up playing for a period and worked at a variety of day jobs, Hart returned to music and quickly established himself as a distinctive and passionate acoustic blues player. A support slot for Taj Mahal in February 1995 brought Harts name to a wider audience, and his debut release for the Sony-licensed OKeh Records label was a vital collection of songs by artists as diverse as Lead Belly (Gallows Pole),...